Florida or Bust!

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Finally, we reached Florida! After getting some maps and freshly squeezed Florida orange juice at the visitor's centre, we ventured off into the state known for Disney, car races, old people, alligators and sunshine.

Of course when we first arrived, everyone was bitterly complaining of the cold, as it was hovering between 10-15°C (50-60°F). The warmth we were so desperately trying to find was eluding us. But it was well above freezing, and as our Quebec license plates may have indicated, we'd take what we could get.

Our first night we reached the town of St Augustine, where we decided to try the nearby state park. As we approached, we saw that the gate was closed, so it didn't look like it was an option until the car in front of us typed in the code to open the gate. Not quite sure what to do, we followed with the gate closing behind us. We awoke to the birds chirping happily and the sun filtering through the trees to our tent. Our campsite was nestled among young palms and huge trees draped in Spanish moss. It seemed like a lovely state park.

We spent the morning exploring the old fort in the historic part of St Augustine. After a hearty brunch, we headed further south along the coastal route, the A1A, reaching Sebastian Inlet State Park that evening. We had a good long chat with the park ranger about traveling, and found our neighbours to be quite friendly as well. One neighbour even handed us a guide to free camping. It was a nice campground, and although it was warm enough to sleep in the tent instead of the car, it wasn't quite warm enough for shorts.

So further south we ventured. That afternoon, after passing through plenty of small run-down towns (and spotting some relics like the original 1950's style McDonald's buildings), we reached the very odd yet famous location of West Palm Beach. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, with the downtown looking a bit abandoned. No one was walking in the streets, some places with beautiful facades were boarded up, and cafés were closed. I was half-expecting a tumbleweed to roll through the streets. We finally drove past Clematis Street, which looked like every other except that there were people on it. When ordering coffees at the Starbucks, Dave asked our barista where the street with the nightlife was in this town. "You're on it" he replied. Oh. We couldn't pick up any wireless signal, so we wandered down the street to the library. When I asked at the counter for a map, the lady decided to give us some tourist advice.
"So this here is Clematis Street, it's a popular street to hang out with a few bars and a Starbucks".
I pointed to the Starbucks cup I had in my hand.
"Oh. I see you've already been there. Uh, well, up in this area there's a mall..."
What a town. Starbucks and the mall? Really? There had to be something else...why did West Palm Beach ring a bell? Wasn't it famous once?
That night we met up with Sarah, who I had met in Lyon a few years ago. She had just moved to the area for her PhD. We set off to explore the bar scene. After shivering outside over a round of beers at one popular spot, we headed back up Clematis to see what we could find. We were invited upstairs at Roxy's to see a piano bar. It turned out to be the funniest and oddest of bars, with a few older men playing requests on the pianos in a Western saloon setting. A hen's party loudly cheered them on, while a guy at the bar kept paying the pianists to switch songs. After a while, we decided we had enough of the oddness and called it a night.
Our accomodation that night was...drumroll please...Walmart's parking lot. We had heard that RV's can park overnight at 24-hour Walmarts, so we had decided that we had to try it at least once during our trip. I must say I felt a bit silly climbing into bed in the back of the car in a Walmart parking lot, but we were surrounded by others doing the same and the security guard just gave us a friendly wave in the morning.

So we set off further south, passing through Miami's art-deco, fashion-conscience South Beach. We wizzed by the big skyscrapers and the glitz of Miami in favour of the Everglades, where we found ourselves a grassy spot at Long Pine Key campground within the national park. That night we attended a very interesting ranger talk, where we must have been the only ones under 65 besides the ranger! We learned all about the changes the region has gone through, and the efforts to save and expand the Everglades.

And then it was onto the Keys! We drove all the way to Key West that afternoon, stopping a few times to take photos or look for swimsuits. In Key West, we wandered the streets busy with people drinking and shopping, and joined in. Dave found a local bum to drink with while I went shopping. We then found the famous Mallory Square in time to join the crowds and street performers for sunset, and joined in the applause when the sun sank below the horizon.

Our campground was the Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge, an RV park with a few tent sites. Big Pine Key is the only home to Key deer, a minature version of their white-tailed cousins. These deer are tiny, at about the same size as a bicycle and certainly shorter than the picnic tables. They are incredibly not shy, as we found out.
The next few days would be filled with laughs and great conversation, as we hung out with Chuck and Charles from Akron, Ohio. We exchanged travel stories over drinks, starting rather early the first afternoon.
By about 4pm, we were all getting a bit hungry, so Chuck stood up to see what he could find in his van. He pulled out a bottle of vodka, followed by a half-gallon of spiced rum, a few cans of beer, a bottle of cognac, Peach Schnapps, Malibu, an Irish creme, some sort of vanilla liqueur and another bottle of beer. At this point I had to ask, "Is there any food in there?". At which he proudly pulled out a can of peas. This was going to be an interesting couple of days!
That night we had a cook-off when Charles came back from a walk with a bag of fish filets; Dave and I cooked the fish with key lime, onions, garlic and red peppers while Chuck made a fish stew with tomatoes, onions, green beans and cognac. Yum! Then it was off to the Rec Hall, equipped with drinks, for a night of drunken bingo. When I finally won a round, the boys stood up and whooped and hollered, which sent a wave of laughter throughout the Rec Hall. I gladly split my $17 winnings with the boys.

The next morning, Chuck wandered over looking a bit rough, and asked for some hot water for his coffee. Once he had stirred it, he proudly asked us to taste it...it had been flavoured with a bit of cognac. Oh dear. We spent the afternoon soaking in the sun at the beach on Bahia Honda State Park. That night we feasted on crab claws, scallops and shrimp, then wandered back to the Rec Hall. After recieving many comments about our bingo escapades the night before, we couldn't resist the challenge of euchre, a card game I had never heard of. I did alright for a few rounds, until one particularly grumpy woman and bully grandpa seemed to take their revenge from the bingo losses. Needless to say, our euchre playing wasn't as exciting as bingo the night before, so we retreated back to the campsite to have some key lime pie and laugh in whispers when the deer tried to have some too.

After a soak in the pool the next morning, and swapping travel stories with Paul, an Ontarian with the sweetest VW van we've ever seen (and he reminised over our 1989 beast of a car), we set off for the free camping in Big Cypress National Preserve, on the northern side of the Everglades national park. Our campsite was lovely, with very friendly neighbours from NY and Ontario, and one very loud German who joined us later. The German, "Happy" as we called him, had the biggest RV known to man, and proudly explained to us that his RV was his "Happy", his jeep was his "Lucky", his bike was his "Speedy" and his canoe was his "Bindi". The next day we explored Shark Valley Visitor Centre in the hottest day in January, at 84°F (28°C). Still, the sunburn and sun rashes were worth seeing the alligators, turtles and birds including wood storks, blue and grey herons, white egrets, anhingas, ibis, and various types of ducks.

The following day, we took the dirt road back to the highway, stopping for the occasional roadblocks of black vultures or alligators basking in the sun. We drove north and stopped for the night in the Withacoochee State Forest, where we found a big spacious campsite surrounded by huge live oak trees draped in spanish moss. The temperature had dropped again, making us wonder why we were heading north. But the next day's stop was the reason:

Manatees! We stopped at Homossasa Springs Wildlife Park to see the gentle giants. After a lovely boat ride from the visitor's centre to the main part of the park, we wandered to a large part of the river which was home to a "fish bowl" and decorated with several long, mossy rocks. But then one of those mossy rocks lifted its head for some air and snorted. Manatees! The fish bowl was fascinating...it's a deep hole at the head of the warm springs, and is filled with thousands of fish and the occasional manatee that comes to check out the underwater viewing area. We watched as a volunteer got into the water to feed the manatees sweet potato slices. The manatees eagerly pushed and shoved to get their treats, making for a very entertaining show. We also met one manatee who didn't seem to want to partake in the show, and the ranger said she hadn't been eating very much. She did manage to eat a few mouthfulls of grass while we looked on, which was an encouraging sight. It was a magical experience to see these creatures, and we could have easily stayed all day there.

But lunch and New Orleans beckoned. So we stopped for lunch up the road in Crystal River, having lunch outdoors on the patio behind Crackers, and continued north to Tallahassee. We enjoyed the scenery and counting the armadillos on the side of the road. Soon enough, our adventures in Florida were over for this trip.

City of Jazz, here we come!

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Photos

Cannon at St Augustine
One of the cannons at the old fort

Key West Sunset
Everyone applauded the sunset

Key Deer
These tiny, not-so-timid deer are no bigger than a bicycle!

Bahia Honda
The beach at Bahia Honda State Park...but the water was a little too cold for a swim

Smile!
Alligators were everywhere in the Everglades!

Mangroves
A canoe trip would have been fun!

Rocks or Manatees?
At Homassasa Springs, FL

Feeding Time!
I want his job! He fed the manatees sweet pototoes, and this one rolled on her back to get one.

Swimming Along
This manatee came to check out the underwater viewing area

Comments

[1950's swimsuit]

Alligators!
Your trip sounds really fun. I don't know about the alligators though. lol